


The Beast, The Hawk and The Prince

by seratonation



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Castles, Curses, Forests, M/M, Multi, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-20
Updated: 2012-11-20
Packaged: 2017-11-19 03:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seratonation/pseuds/seratonation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, in a land far away...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beast, The Hawk and The Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Shannen <3 it started out as a bedtime twitter story and turned into something I've always wanted to try. I hope I didn't mess it up too much. 
> 
> The PG rating is for surprise nakedness.

A long time ago there was a little boy who lived in a giant castle with his small family. He loved his mother very much but his father was an evil man, who got angry at the smallest things. 

One day an old woman crossed the man’s path. When she asked for help, he denied her. She gave him a warning. ‘You will be asked twice more by strangers, and if you deny them both you shall be cursed.’

The man did not heed this warning, and he denied the next stranger to ask for help. The man then crossed another man. This one was drowning, his arm reaching for the boys father. 

‘Help me,’ he said. 

The boys father took a step back. ‘No,’ he said. The drowning man reached out again, this time grasping the evil man's leg and pulling him into the river. In his anger he thrashed around, trying to save himself, but instead he struck his head on a hidden rock and drowned. 

The witch, upon seeing this, was furious. She was looking forward to cursing the evil man. Instead, she went to the man’s family. 

She demanded she have her vengeance, so she decided to punish his son instead. She said that his fathers temper was his undoing so she cursed the boy and turned him into an ugly beast, large and contorted and green. 

Over time the mother died, the boy became a man, and he never let anyone else close to him, for fear of hurting them just as his father had hurt everyone that was close to him. 

One day a hawk flew into the beast’s castle. He tried everything to make the bird leave but it was stubborn. ‘I'm fast, and strong,’ the hawk said, ‘you cannot hurt me, even if you tried.’

The beast was disgruntled but he really liked the company. He soon stopped telling the hawk to leave and started to keep food out for it to eat, so it wouldn't have to go hunting in the bitter cold of the oncoming winter.

Then, on one dark and stormy night a prince came knocking at the door. His fine clothes were ripped and bloody, his skin bruised and bleeding. 

‘Help me,’ he begged, ‘I’ll pay you in gold and silver, whatever you want. Don't let the wolves get me.’ 

‘This is not a safe place for you,’ the beast said.

‘Please,’ the prince said, ‘just for tonight.’

The hawk looked at the prince in his tattered clothes and made the beast bring him in. ‘He is only a man,’ the bird said, ‘we cannot turn him away. No harm will come to him, he only wants to stay the night.’ 

But the man stayed for much longer. His wounds were too deep, his pain too much to bear. Once the beast saw how hurt the prince was, he couldn't bring himself to turn the prince away. 

With the hawk and the beast watching over him, the prince eventually healed but there was always an excuse to delay his departure. He was coming to think of this as his new home, hoping to ask the beast and the hawk if he could stay permanently when he received the urgent message. 

The king was dead. It was now up to the prince to rule the kingdom. 

‘Come with me,’ he told them, ‘my castle is too big, too empty for a sole occupant.’

‘This is my home,’ the beast said, ‘I cannot abandon it.’

The hawk flew to the prince’s shoulder, digging his claws into the prince’s skin. ‘Do not forget us,’ he said, ‘we will come visit you soon.’

The prince ran a finger down the hawk’s smooth head, looked at the beast, and knew the beast would not leave the safety of these walls. 

The prince left to rule his kingdom, and even though the hawk would visit occasionally, he missed the beast more than he could say. He could not sit idle any longer. He asked the hawk to help him find the witch who had cast the spell on the beast, to see if she could undo her spell. 

The hawk said he would do his best, and flew off. Even though the hawk could see much farther than any other, and could follow the smallest of clues, it took him weeks before he found the witch. She was in a dense forest, living in a small hut between the trees. 

The witch would not agree to return with him. ‘Why should I?’ she asked, ‘there is nothing I would want from the king, or the beast.’

‘What about me?’ he asked, ‘I do not have much, but is there something I could give you if you would help my friend?’

The witch smiled an evil smile. ‘There is nothing you could give me, except for your being.’

‘I do not understand,’ he said, cocking his head to the side. 

‘I would take the curse from your friend, but I would curse you instead,’ she said, ‘I would take your being and make you human.’

The hawk felt a sadness take over him, but he could not see any other way. ‘Let me lead you back as a hawk, I am not sure I would be able to find my way back as a human.’

The witch agreed and they set off to the beasts castle. It took them much longer than it had taken the hawk, for the witch was old and hobbled along with the help of a walking stick. It took them months to reach the beasts castle. 

When he first saw them, he was afraid. Why was the witch here after so many years? However when the hawk explained, the beast refused. 

‘You cannot sacrifice yourself for me,’ the beast said, ‘I won’t allow it.’

‘You cannot stay in this cage forever,’ the hawk replied, ‘the prince- the _king_ needs you.’

‘This castle is not part of his kingdom,’ the beast said, ‘his rule does not extend to me.’

‘But his love does,’ the hawk said, ‘just as yours does to him, and mine, you cannot deny that.’

‘I cannot let you do this for me,’ the beast said, ‘to lose your wings-’

‘I can,’ the hawk interrupted, ‘I would feel your skin beneath my fingers, kiss you with human lips.’

The beast stroked the hawks head. ‘You would be human.’

‘Yes,’ the hawk said, ‘and so would you.’

Finally, the beast closed his eyes and nodded his head. They went to the witch, who had taken residence in one of the many rooms in the castle, and asked her to take the curse from one, and put a new one on the other. She didn’t say anything, bust she smiled that evil smile again.

The beast screamed in pain, clutching at his body as it contorted and shrunk in size, his skin becoming a normal hue, until finally, he was human again. 

He looked at his hands in wonder, then turned to the witch. ‘Thank you,’ he said emphatically. 

The hawk was next, his screech started out high and became lower in pitch as he grew in size, his feathers moulting at an alarming rate. He ended up on his hands and knees, gasping for air. 

He touched his bare chest, his face and lips, and then looked at his own hands, before turning to the beast, eyes wide. 

‘You have proven that you are not your father,’ the witch said to the beast, ‘you helped someone in his greatest hour of need. You deserve this.’

Then she turned to the hawk, still on his knees. ‘You would sacrifice everything you know for love,’ she said, ‘that is not something to be taken lightly, and very noble. You may find that perhaps you did not lose everything, hawk.’ 

She cackled at their stricken faces and disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

‘Why did she not do that from the beginning?’ the hawk said, trying to stand up, holding his hands out to catch his balance. It was strange without his tail and wings to keep him upright, but the flat feet and long legs helped. He turned to the beast, and stretched out his hand, stroking his fingers across the beasts face. 

‘You are human,’ the hawk said, and the beast smiled, imitating him. It was a strange feeling to have skin touch skin. 

‘So are you,’ the beast said, ‘though your eyes are still the same. Hawk eyes.’ The beasts eyes travelled downwards to take in the rest of the hawks new human body and felt his face heat up. ‘Let me get you some clothes.’ He left before the hawk could reply. 

They set out to the kings castle as soon as they were able. The trip should have taken days but their eagerness drove them forward. 

They requested an audience with the king, and once they were stripped of any weapons they had, they were presented to him in the throne room. 

Their prince looked tired, and bored, sitting high above the ground in his throne. He did not look at them, at first, just waved his hand in a circular motion for them to commence.

The hawk and the beast bowed. ‘My king,’ the hawk said. The king suddenly sat up and took a closer look at them. He got up and bounded down the stairs until he was inches away from them. He put out a hand and cupped the hawks new human face, then turned to the beast to do the same. 

‘Hawk?’ he said, ‘beast? how can this be?’

‘We spoke to the witch,’ the beast said, ‘we made a deal with her. No, it’s alright-’ he said at the kings look of shock, ‘she reversed my curse and cursed the hawk instead.’

‘Your wings-’ the king started, running a hand down the hawks shoulder. 

The hawk looked away and back at the king. ‘I did not think twice, for the feel of your lips on mine.’

Then something very strange happened. The king pulled himself to his full height and turned to his guards. ‘Audience is over for today,’ he said, ‘please escort these- these men to my quarters until their own can be arranged.’

‘Sire?’ The chief asked.

‘You heard me,’ the king said, ‘I want them treated as well as you would treat your own king.’

‘Yes, sire,’ the chief said, bowing low, then turned to the men, ‘follow me if you please.’ 

‘Go ahead,’ he told them, ‘I will see you soon.’

The guard led them up stairwells and down long hallways, until he stopped outside a set of huge double doors. ‘The King Anthony’s quarters,’ he announced. 

They pushed the doors open and thankfully, the guard did not follow. They explored the extravagant rooms and before long the king joined them.

‘You are human,’ he said, once the doors closed behind him, ‘how is that possible?’

‘I found the witch,’ the hawk said, ‘she said she needed something in return, she did not want anything from either of you, I would bear this curse if it meant we can all be together, like this.’

Their prince, for even though he was a king, he would always be their prince, reached out and touched the beast’s face.

‘Beast-’ he started.

‘Bruce,’ the beast corrected, ‘my mother named me Bruce, beast I am no more.’

The prince could not hold back any longer. He reached forward and kissed Bruce fiercely on the lips. ‘I have missed you,’ he said when they parted. 

Before the beast could reply the hawk took the prince’s face in between his hands, feeling the rough beard under his palms. He brought the prince’s face forward and kissed him, almost sweetly, exploring, tasting the princes mouth.

‘I wanted to taste his lips on yours,’ he said, smiling slightly. 

The prince smirked at him, and kissed him again. The three of them traded kisses for a long time, and eventually they ended up naked and tangled in bed, having explored every inch of each other. 

‘Never leave,’ the prince said, ‘there is plenty of room, and people that will be at your hand and foot if you so require, just- never leave. I do not want to be alone again.’

The beast was silent, but the hawk considered it, his nerves on end, the bodies on either side of him sticky and too warm. It was never like this as a bird. He never wanted to leave this spot, let alone the castle.

‘You won’t be alone,’ the hawk said.

‘I need to return to my castle,’ the beast said, ‘to bring all my belongings.’

‘You- you will stay?’ the prince asked, ‘both of you?’

‘I do not think you can be rid of us,’ the hawk said, ‘despite any efforts you may attempt.’

‘We’re here to stay,’ the beast confirmed.

The prince tangibly relaxed, turning his body towards them. 

They lived happily ever after.


End file.
